The Rock — October 2016

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School district start date conversation stir controversy, debate on effects on tourism, fall sports, A2

New generation of youth struggle with self-confidence after developing pipe dreams, B2

SPORTS

Shonekan family legacy prospers on with accomplishments in cross country, track and field, C1

The Student Voice of Rock Bridge High School Since 1973 • 4303 S. Providence Rd. Columbia MO, 65203 • Vol. 44 Issue 2 • October 27, 2016

Museum to inform on Black feats Rochita Ghosh

I

tyson jamieson / the rock

RINGING The alarm: Students gather outside of the school after last year’s successful ALICE drill. The next ALICE drill will occur on Oct. 28. Drills like this one help students to prepare in case of a real-life emergency; however, they can be extremely disruptive to classes.

Drilling the system Ji-Ho Lee

E

very student knows the drill. As the lights blink and the alarms shriek, teachers and administrators usher people out of the building at the sound of a fire alarm.

Students return to their classes after a few minutes, and teachers continue with their lessons.

The school requires its students and teachers to engage in different safety procedures, most commonly fire drills. For junior Sam Rentschler, these drills often feel unnecessary.

“I think by this point in my RBHS career, I know how to safely exit the building,” Rentschler

said. “I don’t think there need to be fire drills as frequently. It is a pretty simple concept: if there is a fire in the building, you get out of the building. I think it is nice to practice so you know where the closest exit is, but the repetition is kind of unnecessary.”

Rentschler’s claims may be justified. Assistant principal Dr. Tim Baker, who is the main coordinator of drills in the school, explained that state mandates require the school to conduct 10 fire drills per year, including two within the first two weeks of school.

Another complaint from students such as senior Michael Jay Schauwecker is that the fire drills

cause distraction in their classes.

“It is frustrating sometimes when you are working hard in a class and all of a sudden the alarm starts going off and you have to get up and walk out of the building,” Schauwecker said. “It disrupts class, and it is really hard to focus after you come back into the school.”

Although the distractions may impact students and teachers during drills, United States history teacher Kimberly Thielen-Metcalf explains that they are inevitable. She also thinks the practice is beneficial despite its occasional redundancy.

“I don’t have a problem with fire drills; we need them. I think

it is just common sense safety,” Thielen-Metcalf said. “There are many things in the running of a high school that cause distractions. Teachers know that. It’s an occupational hazard.”

While some find the drills vital and others dislike them and their interruption, the state requires them nonetheless.

“We have mandates that the school board sets down and some that the state sets down about how many drills are required, so we simply follow what we are told to follow,” Baker said. “It is up to me plan when to schedule them, but we generally do what we are supposed to do.”

See SAFETY, A3

t’s no secret that race in the United States is a topic of controversy. Within the past several months, movements like Black Lives Matter and #blackout, a movement for African-Americans to post selfies on social media, have begun to erupt around popular media and cult. Nor is it a secret that the country’s history and racism are intertwined.

These conversations take place more often in modern times, and manifest through a variety of means. One such way is the Black History 101 Mobile Museum, which will come to Columbia tomorrow, Oct. 28, to Hickman High School, although all members of the community are welcome. This includes the African-American Literature class at RBHS who will attend. Senior Tylee Schnake, a student in the class, said the number of diverse artifacts in the museum is proof of the struggle that African-Americans face and how people in the past overcame it.

“We all know that back in the day, blacks were treated horribly. We know that there was a lot of pain and suffering they endured — more than we’ll ever know or understand,” Schnake said. “It’s good that [the museum] teaches that.

I think they should emphasize how, despite the oppression, poverty and fear, black heroes sprung up in so many different areas.”

The curator of the museum, Khalid El-Hakim, said this diversity of accomplishments is what inspired his varied exhibits.

“I design exhibits based on different themes such as sports, music, leadership, politics, religion, business and science,” El-Hakim said.

“Having diverse exhibits provides an opportunity for audiences to be exposed to a very wide range of perspectives of the black experience in America.”

African American Literature teacher Randy Swift believes this emphasis is the most essential part of the exhibit because of the United States’ past, especially in regards to the past treatment of African Americans.

See MUSEUM, A4

Start dates Administration to dive into structure stir debate Ji-Ho Lee

Elad Gov-Ari

A

new proposition has sparked a conversation regarding school start dates. The Missouri Joint Committee on Education (MJCE) proposes to begin the school year in the latter half of August, after labor day. While supporters of this change cite increased economic revenue as its primary benefit, the academic and athletic consequences may offset its advantages.

David Woods, state representative and vice chairman of the MJCE, said a multitude of reasons exist for changing the start dates, with the strongest of these being the monetary value of the tourist seasons.

“There’s several reasons to move school dates up,” Woods said. “It’s [always] been discussed in regards of state fairs, vacations and tourism, which is an enormous industry in Missouri. When you take weeks out of the month of August, you take money out of tourism. When you start school before the state fair ends, you’re making students make a choice of whether they attend the state fair, show their cattle or play in sports. It’s very difficult to do the two at the same time. Depending on your party; either agriculture, that advocate starting school at later times, or if you’re in the tourism industry, shorting that month means shortening the summer income.”

Although the fiscal value of the two weeks reaches into the millions, changing the start date may not justify the cash reward as sports and learning calendars will be greatly disrupted.

See DATE, A2

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acked with students, teachers, administrators and visitors, RBHS is no stranger to crowded hallways. This morning, during first period, however, a couple new faces will be joining the school.

Accompanied by RBHS principal Dr. Jennifer Rukstad, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Kevin Brown and the district’s Director of Data Services Dr. David Wilson will be roaming the school in the midst of a newly implemented Deep Dive investigation. Rukstad also explained that an assistant principal and two teachers would be making observations with the group. “​A Deep Dive is simply what the name ‘deep dives’ implies,” Dr. Brown said. “We dive deep into the school’s data, which covers referrals, attendance, ACT scores, EOC scores. These various data sets let us know how we are doing as a district and as individual schools.”

Dr. Brown explained that this type of indepth investigation, commonly referred to as “progress monitoring,” is fairly common around the country in different institutions.

Different organizations and districts may have unique ways of executing these inspections, and Columbia Public Schools (CPS) has its own formula.

“During the Deep Dives, we ask questions, collaborate, problem solve, and we agree upon solutions,” Dr. Brown said. “This process is a very friendly process designed to provide administrators feedback, but more importantly it allows for coaching.”

Along with Dr. Brown, Dr. Rukstad and

cASSidy viox / the rock

BE OUR GUEST: Several Swedish teachers tour RBHS Oct. 25 and sit in a conference room, learning about the school. RBHS will see visitors again from administration today, who will look at how classes function and what could be improved in the classroom.

“Some teachers don’t change anything, Dr. Wilson, two teachers and an assistant principal will join the investigation. Dr. Rukstad but other teachers teach a bit differently, and said the six will split into groups of three and it seems like they’ll explain stuff in greater observe a classroom for around 10 minutes. detail,” Hulett said. “The administrators could “The idea is to get a very broad snapshot . . see if the students are doing a good job or if . of data and classroom observations in a short they are focused on what’s being taught.” period of time to give a sense of how things While the presence of administrators may are going with teaching and learning in the be intimidating, Dr. Brown said the goal of the school at that time,” Dr. Rukstad said. “We are Deep Dive is to improve the district. going to see how we are doing by school sub“Deep Dives are not designed to be punigroup, and find out if things in a classroom are tive or evaluative,” Dr. Brown said. “Howgoing well, and [if] we are seeing indicators ever, [Deep Dives] are designed to improve of the use of learning targets and high rigor the culture and climate of the school and to make sure that each school has students at the strategies.”

Freshman Chase Hulett said these sit-ins core of all decisions and practices. Why? Our can be valuable for both students and teachers, job as a district is to provide students with the very best education CPS has to offer.” and fulfill the goals outlined by Dr. Rukstad.

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A2 | news

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Abby blitz / the rock

practice makes perfect: Head coach Janel Twehous instructs freshman pitcher Mackenzie White (left) and sophomore catcher Charlessa Elliott (right) Aug. 2 during the second day of softball tryouts. After the required dead week, the Bruins proceeded with practices for their upcoming season. Dead week prohibits organized practices and meetings on RBHS fields.

School start date affects CPS SAFETY, A1

“One concern with the [school’s] start in the fall is the weather,” MSHSAA Communications Director Jason West said. “If the start is too early, the temperatures may be too warm. If the start is too late, there could be more issues with rain or thunderstorms. There are procedures for schools on dealing with heat and lightning. Finding that ‘sweet spot’ where both factors can be avoided as much as possible [would be ideal].”

Junior football wide receiver Reece Jarvis understands West’s concerns.

“Football has offseason practices throughout the entire year and during the summer,” Jarvis said. “If the school start dates are changed, I feel like it would mess up our practice schedule, since our coaches do everything they can to prepare us for the

first game of the year.”

Athletics aren’t the only worry.

Columbia Public Schools (CPS) Communications Director Michelle Baumstark said starting after Labor Day would cause problems affecting more than just the sports’ schedules.

“There are a couple of things with our school calendar as of right now,” Baumstark said. “One thing is the number of minutes that schools are in session, [which] is regulated by state law…”

Because of this set number of minutes, a changed start date would require CPS to readjust the framework of the year by cutting into vacations, or stretching the school year into June. This would disrupt the summer school schedule.

“The thing it gets down to is being able to provide those minutes of instruction as required by law,” Baum-

“One question our member stark said. “Whether you start earlier or later, there are some factors to con- schools will have to answer is how sider during the middle of the year... much ‘cross over’ time should there There’d be a number of consider- be between fall sports and winter ations to make sure we don’t jeopar- sports,” West said. “ How much overdize our state funding when it comes lap [in season] can there be between fall sports, to the Aversuch as age Daily football, Attendance It would mess up our practice and win( A D A ) schedule, since our coaches ter sports, which is a do everything they can to presuch as huge driving pare us for the first game of the basketball point in state or wresfunding. We year.” tling? The also have —Reece Jarvis, junior answer to a very successful summer school program that this will help determine how benlasts a full month during June, which eficial a later start to the fall seasons would be in regards to activities.” also contributes to the ADA.” With confusion surrounding a Another concern voiced by MSHSAA is in regard to how many sports two-week change, Woods supports can be going on at the same time, as pushing forward school dates.

“The issue will keep coming up later dates means later seasons.

until there is some kind of resolution,” Woods said. “If I had a prediction, I would say the agricultural exemption could disappear, and you would be required [to start] no sooner than 10 days before Labor Day as current statute dictates.”

The agricultural exemption, as Woods said, is a loophole that allows Missouri schools to start before Labor Day, despite the legislature stating otherwise.

“We’ve tried to make it to where [schools] could make the days as long as you wanted and had any number of days in your calendar or year,” Woods said. “If you started later, and added 30 minutes to the day, you could end sooner in the year ... I’m not a supporter of the agricultural exemption, as what it was created for is no longer needed. There are better ways to get more learning in.”

news | a3

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Racism in Columbia Missouri Theatre

Douglass

Frederick Douglass High School was opened and used as a segregated school for African American students.

Missouri’s Jim Crow laws required African American patrons were required to use the rear entrance, pictured above.

Lynching of James Scott

A mob lynched janitor James Scott on the Stewert Bridge because he was accused of assualting a white woman.

St. Paul

A.M.E. Church

The church was founded in 1880 by African American citizens of Columbia. It served as a social and religious center.

One year later, growth JOY PARK / the rock

Aftermath of racism echoes in Columbia Siena Juhlin

C

All photos by abby blitz / the rock

olumbia is a community which has been marred by controversy in recent months. Now, the University of Missouri - Columbia (MU), has recently had racial discrimination become a recurring issue on campus. On Sept. 27, 2016, two African American women were walking past the fraternity Delta Upsilon at 711 Tiger Ave., where they heard racist and sexist slurs, including the n-word.

The University suspended the fraternity for the rude comments but has recently stopped investigating and no longer continues to look into the problem.

MU has battled with accusations of racism over the past few years and some people that are aware of the problems are upset about how the school’s administration has handled them. In 2010, MU students put cotton balls outside the campus Black Culture Center, which sparked racial tensions on campus. Two years ago, police shot and killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., which ignited

the Black Lives Matter movement.

Since then, there has been heightened discussion on racial issues across the country, particularly in Missouri.

Racial prejudice intensified last year after an MU student etched a swastika into a wall of the third floor of Gateway Hall and someone called the student body president the n-word. This set off a whilwind of backfire.

Tim Wolfe, the former system president of MU, resigned, along with the former chancellor of MU’s Columbia campus, R. Bowen Loftin, following criticism from the community regarding their response, or lack thereof, of the situation, according to the Washington Times.

According to CNN, after some faculty and staff, including players on MU’s football team, voiced their opinions on the issues, MU still did nothing to address the problem. Students began to protest through hunger strikes, camping out on campus and the football team refused to continue to play until Wolfe or Loftin either resigned or dealt with the issues. The students did this in hopes

that the school might do something to to recruit and retain diverse faculty improve racial discrimination within members this year. its grounds.

With these issues at MU, RBHS Though these racial disputes were students have become more aware of centered at MU, some RBHS stu- racial discrimination and the effects it dents were affected. Sophomore Ava has on people of color.

Hemwall felt so strongly about this “Our district has a policy about problem that she attended one of the discrimination and we don’t discrimprotests. inate based on any of those protected “I decided to protest against MU identities,” Assistant Principal Dr. by campLisa Nieuwenhuizen ing out on said. “Our the school’s job is to campus beRacial discrimination is a huge make sure cause I felt problem and it needs to be adthat stuwe could all dressed, we need to educate peodents are make MU ple and make sure.” being readdress the — Cameron Thompson, spectful of things going everyone’s on,” Hemsophomore i d e n t i t y. wall said. “I thought that if enough of us came to- We need to be made aware of the gether to prove a point, then we could problem when students are experipositively affect the community and encing forms of oppression by letting counselors or the principal know so in the end, we did.”

In response to the protests, not we can handle the issue.” only did Wolfe and Loftin resign, but While some RBHS students don’t Kevin McDonald, the Chief Diversi- know the details of racial issues at ty Officer candidate of MU, has cre- MU, they still have experience with ated a goal to set aside $1.3 million racism either through community or

In sixth grade I was made fun of for being too white. Freshman year I was called the n-word by two white boys, and they told me to go back to the fields.

I was also hit with a ruler once because the person was pretending it was a whip.”

— Tylee Schnake

Practice, repetition spur student safety DRILLS, A1

Along with fire drills and weather-related practices, the school also practices two different types of bomb threat drills.

In one of these, the students and teachers in the school evacuate the building.

In the other, the teacher of the class discusses the protocol for a potential bomb drill evacuation. “[The bomb drills] are a little redundant, to be honest, because if there is a bomb threat, we all know what to do: get out of the building,” Baker said. “But they are really more for teachers because we have protocol and certain things that teachers should look for in a classroom.

For instance if there is a real bomb threat, we are supposed to get kids out . . . If you tell all the kids to evacuate but one kid left their backpack in the corner, you might be concerned about that. So it is more of a teacher drill.”

RBHS also engages in intruder drills and lockdown drills. Often referred to as ALICE (Alert Lockdown Inform Coun-

ter Evacuate) drills, Baker wishes to see more of these procedures practiced in the future.

“If it was up to me, we would have many more intruder or ALICE drills,” Baker said. “There have been about 750 people die from school shootings in the past 20 years, which is more than in fires, so where should we focus our efforts?

For me it is more towards intruder drills .... Right now we are told to do two intruder drills per year, so that’s what we do. But we have stated our opinion that we would like to see more intruder and less fire.”

While Baker wishes to practice more intruder drills, Thielen-Metcalf hopes drills one day will no longer be necessary. As recent events have indicated, however, the drills are required in the hopes that they increase student safety and livelihood.

“They are an unfortunate necessity,” Thielen-Metcalf said. “I wish we didn’t do them, but we do.”

i have experienced racism even at home. I am in foster care and I had just moved into a new foster home.

There were insane jokes from a house that was a majority of white people.

Eventually I was kicked out of that house because I had just gotten so tired of it.”

— Kareem Liggins

secondhand information.

“Racial discrimination is a huge problem, and it needs to be addressed.

We need to educate people and make sure everyone knows what’s happening in our community,” sophomore Cameron Thompson said. “People need to realize the significance of racism and the impact it has on not just people of color, but the society as a whole.”

Although RBHS students don’t attend the University, they still feel a connection between themselves and MU because of the racial discrimination issues transpiring. According to allaboutpopularissues.com, these problems have been an issue both at MU, and the worldwide community .

Not only does racism hurt the people involved, but it also has its affects on the people who have contradicting opinions on the topic.

“It really hurts me to know that not everyone believes racial discrimination really exists,” Thompson said.

“Racism still exists and it’s very, very real.”

MU officials declined to be interviewed.

I definitely experienced racism. When I was in elementary school, kids were just really immature and did the whole making Asian eyes thing with their hands. And it’s honestly just like, why would they do that? ” — Michelle Wu

Seniors Speak

Tyson Jamieson / the rock

Practice Makes perfect: Seniors Timofey Kolenikov and Zane Durante return to class after last year’s ALICE drill. Drills like this help students prepare for the real-life scenario of an intruder in the building. RBHS only had one ALICE drill last year, and only has one scheduled for 2016 as well.

A4 | news

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Questioning quality Water pollutants concern Columbians

Ji-Sung Lee

S

tudents often rely on the readily available water bottles and water fountains around the school. These students, however, rarely stop to consider the presence of contaminants in the drinking water and possible health concerns.

As the potential for lead in consumable water around Columbia has recently increased with 47 samples in the district that had to be retested, the city urged Columbia Public Schools (CPS) to go about handling the issue with a water quality evaluation for all schools and support facilities in the district.

An initial water quality evaluation on June 1 had its follow up evaluation a month later July 8 according to the CPS 2016 water quality report. PDC Laboratories Inc. (PDC) along with CPS decided to provide five statements evaluating the samples.

Fulfilling these requirements calls for transporting the water samples to the labs from the Facilities and Construction Services Department (FCS) location, analyzing the samples from the laboratory and developing a summary for the school.

The report consists of sections including a 90 percent passing requirement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Lead and Copper Rule for public water.

While the five-step process for the collected samples help to ensure the safety and health of all water con-

sumers, Community Relations Director Michelle Baumstark explains the meticulous process is not completely necessary.

“The district voluntarily chose to conduct water quality testing. There is no law or requirement that the school district do such testing,” Baumstark said in an email interview. “Over the summer, there were 1,429 samples collected from across the district. There were 47 that had to be retested. We only had three locations out of the 1,400 plus that did not meet standards.”

Baumstark adds that the samples that did not meet standards were in the science labs and had indicators that the water should not be consumed.

“The remaining 44 sites that passed after the second testing with either flushing or otherwise are also at locations that typically are not used for water consumption (science lab sinks, hand washing sinks, etc.); or that shouldn’t be used is the first place,” Baumstark said.

“For those areas, as an added precaution, we also placed signage instructing the user to not use [the] water [for] consumption.”

While the samples that did not meet standards were hazardous for any consumer, the main danger is for students who often rely on school fountains to drink water.

For junior Devin Bernskoetter, however, the downsides are little to none.

“I don’t drink from school faucets. [I drink from] a water bottle that I bring from home,” Bernskoetter said.

“I can see the water problem happening because the

dzung ngUyen

school is so old. I think CPS should provide water if we can’t drink out of the fountains. I think they should try to fix the pipes so the water is safer.”

Despite the intimidating process for water safety, RBHS principal Dr. Jennifer Rukstad reassures students that the conditions are slowly being brought back to normal.

“Testing shows that there was only one sample that exceeds the lead action, [which] shows that eliminating our lead fixtures is not called for,” Dr. Rukstad said.

“The testing shows that they do not affect RBHS because we don’t have any lead or copper in our water that would be harming.”

Though the testing isn’t a legal requirement, administrators are still seeking to find the cause of these problems. While they may be unharmful, they affect the health of RBHS students.

“The school district is reviewing how other school districts are handling similar testing and is working to determine a plan moving forward,” Dr. Rukstad said.

“There isn’t a lot of guidance at the federal level for how to do this since testing is not required for school districts.”

Additional reporting by Rochita Ghosh

Problems extend beyond school fixtures, facilities Grace Vance

F

Joy Park

rom low water pressure to chemical residue, the city of Columbia has suffered water problems that have affected residents, businesses and Columbia Public Schools (CPS) throughout the past few years.

In 2008 the levels of trihalomethanes (TTHM) in the city of Columbia exceeded the federal limit of 80 parts per billion, which is worrisome because when TTHM is at high levels, it increases the risk of developing cancer.

Joe Strodtman, an Engineering Specialist at Columbia Water and Light (CWL), said the city later changed its means of disinfection from solely chlorine to the addition of ammonia — together known as chloramine.

This mixture of substances was created with means to purify water.

To add to Columbia’s water problems, in June earlier this year, CWL issued a boil advisory for the Thornbrook subdivision because of low water pressures that could be harming to resident’s health.

“Thornbrook has [had] a lot of water quality problems lately due to the new school coming in,” junior Devin Bernskoetter said. “Most of the summer it tasted a little more like iron than it usually does.”

Rather than adhere to the city-issued procedures during the advisory, the Bernskoetter family used bottled water to hydrate and cook with.

“My family just bought a lot of water bottles over the summer,” Bernskoetter said. “I’ve lived in Thornbrook for 13 years. It happens almost every summer.”

While to most these water problems are inconvenient, for Thornbrook resident and creator of the COMO Safe Water Coalition Julie Ryan, water safety goes beyond that. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, Ryan altered to begin living a healthier lifestyle as a supplement to chemotherapy and surgery. In learning about health promoting habits, she also became aware of the topic of water quality in Columbia.

“You start looking into things, and you start searching for the types of carcinogenic items that are in our environment. We’re never going to eliminate all of them, [but] we can do our best,” Ryan said. “Water is a valuable resource. Our kids are exposed to it, we are exposed to it [and] some of the disinfection byproducts that are found in our water are carcinogenic.”

Strodtman said that the city follows the standards set by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Environmental Protection Agency Read more on (EPA).

Bearing News

Museum to educate community on history of race MUSEUM, A1

Swift believes the museum can be a great education opportunity for anyone.

“The artifacts in the mobile museum exhibit are pieces of history,” Swift said. “[El-Hakim has] a postcard signed by Rosa Parks and he has a document signed by MLK. Seeing some of the documents, especially like a [picture of a] slave in shackles, I think, adds depth to a picture when seeing that in person. I think there’s a certain amount of weight that goes into seeing an artifact rather than just hearing about it.

The weight helps with more of an emotional impact, which helps the learning.”

Swift cites this as the main reason for why he will be taking his class to the exhibit.

“History becomes more relevant when you can see it, rather than just hear the stories,” Swift said. “Also, the coordinator of the mobile museum is an expert, and I believe in using any resources possible to help educate my students.

I think seeing and possibly holding a piece of history has a better impact on the student’s learning.”

As El-Hakim’s museum grows and travels to new cities, he never loses sight of his goal to tell the story of his people. Swift sees the

museum as a learning opportunity for his class.

“Seeing these objects, these stereotypepromoting things he’s got on display, can raise some awareness that racism isn’t just a problem today,” Swift said. “It’s been a problem for a very, very long time, and that’s possibly the reason why it’s still a problem today. I think being able to seeing some history in action can show people this perspective, that there’s more to society than what they possibly learned in high school and college.”

The Washington Post claims the current, volatile atmosphere concerning race has divided the United States today, and El-Hakim hopes to heal this fissure by widening people’s perception of African-Americans. He believes that, in the process, he may see progress in the race conversation.

“People are uncomfortable having discussions about race today, but it’s only through honest discussions about race that we’ll be able to make a difference in the way we see and interact with each other,” El-Hakim said. “Using historical artifacts to initiate these tough discussions, in my opinion, is one of the most enMADison wright / the rock gaging and transformative ways to address this reading race: Seniors Kian Pilot and Isaiah Patrick read a text in their African-American challenge.”

Literature class. The class will attend the museum tomorrow as a part of their studies.

editorials | a5

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Drills need update

Captured on camera, good and bad shots Outdated

procedure must go

T

he most annoying sound in a school are the blaring fire alarms, especially when they ring for a drill and not a real emergency. Though they are annoying, drills are vital in ensuring student safety.

In order to keep students safe, a well-organized drill structure with efficient repetition is necessary. To do this, RBHS needs to update the number and the manner in which it carries out emergency drills.

RBHS has 10 fire drills a year, and while fire safety is important, 10 is too many. The National Fire Prevention Association reported there has only been eight deadly fires in schools in the past 100 years. Thus, RBHS should have eight fire drills per school year so that A and B days for both semesters have practice. That way, if a fire did break out, students would know the closest exit from each of their classes.

RBHS also has two bombthreat drills, one that reviews procedures and one that requires evacutation. Because the bombthreat evacuation drill is similar to fire drills, combining the two into

one big practice would allow for greater efficiency.

Implementing this would be simple, too. Before one of the fire drills, teachers would talk about the steps a class would take in a bomb-threat emergency. Then the class would leave the building, since the process of evacuation doesn’t differ between the two drills.

The school also conducts two tornado drills and two earthquake drills. Since tornadoes are a bigger threat to Missouri and earthquakes are not, there should be four tornado drills a year and only be one earthquake drill. Also, the procedure of a tornado drill is more complicated than that of earthquakes, so students need to practice it more often.

The last two types of drills are modified lockdowns and Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate (ALICE) drills. RBHS holds one of each of those drills a year, and though their purpose is similar, the difference between them is how they are executed. In a modified lockdown, class continues as usual, but the doors are locked and hallway access is prohibited.

Meanwhile, the setup of an ALICE drill is a simulation where classes have to “escape” from a shooter portrayed by an adult.

Having one modified lockdown a year is good, since it doesn’t require an intricate plan.

But there should be three ALICE drills a year, not one. The threat

of having an active shooter in the the nearest exit but actually stratbuilding is unfortunately higher egize and plan ahead for a real now than in previous years, since, crisis. according to EveryTownReAdding on to that, there should search.org, more school shootings be a drill conducted during a passhave been happening in recent ing time. Just because class isn’t in years. The school and the district session doesn’t mean an incident should better prepare its students won’t happen and kids won’t get for an active shooter, which can hurt. Though the idea may seem happen through having more than chaotic, if handled right, it won’t be. The first step in this is to inform one ALICE drill a year.

Altering the number of drills to the student body of the drill and better fit their role in school will instruct them on how to execute it. increase student preparation and Then, during the passing time, an safety for a real crisis. But to fully administrator will announce the drill over r e a d y the interstudents, the way Should changes be made to the com and students drills number of drills and execution of will do are carthe drills at RBHS? as inried out structed. should Having change.

The Rock staff voted this type Fires Yes - 31 of drill won’t would run as NO - 0 benefit smoothly as fire students drills, because where everyone is calm and walks they’d be able to problem solve out the nearest exit. Especially and figure out how to get out of a if the fire is blocking the exit. situation as it really plays out.

In all, the drill system at RBHS RBHS should conduct fire drills in a similar way to ALICE drills. needs to change to increase safety The school should simulate a fire, in the school and better prepare or pretend like the fire is in a part kids for a real emergency. But, to of the school and in the way of an ensure that this works, students exit. An administrator should an- need to take these drills seriously nounce where the fire is and stu- and learn from them, too. Otherdents should work to avoid that wise drills would be the same as place as if it were a real fire. This the alarms that come with them: way, students won’t just herd to annoying.

Kris Cho, joy park, ji-ho lee / Source: Dr. tim baker

Students benefit from August start

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joy park

Correction on The Rock issue

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n the morning of Sept. 22, The Rock, the newspaper of Rock Bridge High School, printed and distributed a newspaper to the school. Approximately 1,500 copies were given to students, faculty and staff in the school. On Page A6 of the newspaper, in a story titled Athletes deserve sanctions, an obscene word appeared on the artwork corresponding to the story. When the art was placed, the artist was not aware the obscenity would print.

Within 90 minutes, The Rock staff recalled and fixed the issue on as many copies as possible, and redistributed the error-free copies to the public. The purpose of The Rock is to educate, entertain and inform the student body and the community. By no means does this piece reflect the philosophy and intentions of The Rock . The editorial board of The Rock sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience and the mistake.

obody likes to be in school during June.

With temperatures in the high ‘80s and the prospect of sitting poolside under the warm sun, students would much rather spend the first days of June on summer vacation than learning about the last unit of precalculus.

One group of politicians, the Missouri Joint Committee on Education, however, seeks to extend the school year into the first days of June.

Missouri state law requires the first day of school to be scheduled no earlier than 10 days before Labor Day. The “agricultural exemption,” however, allows districts to be exempt from this requirement if they choose. CPS does not use this exception, beginning school in mid-August and ending in late May. A proposition from Missouri Congress seeks to make every district in the state push back the first day of school to late August, which would release school in early June.

While a postponed first day of school offers certain benefits, most notably tourism, the current system used by RBHS is simply much better. By pushing school back, the students who wish to participate in the Missouri State Fair can do so without the burden of early assignments and assessments. Also, areas like the Lake of the Ozarks could stay open later for students, as would local pools and country clubs.

These summer activities may be more acThe Rock Rock Bridge High School 4303 S. Providence Rd., Columbia, Mo. 65203 Vol. 44, Issue 2 October 27, 2016 Population: 1,962 Students, 148 Faculty Circulation: 1,500 Contact Information: Phone: 573-214-3141 Website: bearingnews.org Advertising: $50 – 1/4 Page $100 – 1/2 Page $150 – Full Page

cessible in August, but they are just as pop- ficient time to provide their students with all ular in June when school normally gets out. the necessary material along with a week or Students are much more likely to travel to the two of review. A later first day of school would Lake or go to the pool during the first week of put Missouri students at a disadvantage for AP school in August as opposed to the last week testing.

Athletically, students who participate in of school during finals in June. spring sports comWhile the argupete in district tourment for the state fair naments and postis valid, many school Should high schools in Missouri season play at the districts, notably the change the first day of school to end of May. If school ones in St. Louis, after Labor Day? were to end in June, Kansas City and even those student-athletes Columbia, do not The Rock staff voted would miss valuable have a large number class time during fiof students participatYes - 1 nals or end of year exing in the Fair. There NO - 30 ams when they would is no need to make typically be released every district in the from school. Pushing state change their back the first day of schedules when those schools that participate in the Fair can easily school would not be fair to student-athletes.

From an academic and athletic perspective, access the “agricultural exemption.”

Furthermore, because of CPS’ current the majority of students in the state benefit schedule, the end of the first semester ends from a school year beginning in mid-August. fairly evenly with Christmas and the New If the Missouri Joint Committee on EducaYear. If the first day of school were pushed tion truly prioritize providing students with back, school curriculum would have to adjust, the best academic opportunities, they would making second semester longer than the first keep the system as it is today. The committee should recognize that the “agricultural exempand making finals more difficult.

From an academic standpoint, the school tion” exists for a reason, and for the majority year ends at around the same as Advanced of students in Missouri, changing the system Placement (AP) testing, giving teachers suf- would create more problems than it solves.

$200 – Backpage The Journalism Newspaper and Honors Seminar classes produce The Rock, Bearing News and Southpaw.

The paper’s purpose is to accurately inform, educate and enlighten readers in an open forum.

The Rock is a member of the National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association and Quill & Scroll.

Advisor: Robin Stover Editors-In-Chief: Ji-Ho Lee, Katherine Sarafianos,

Grace Vance Production Manager: Ji-Ho Lee Art Editor: Joy Park Design Editor: Joy Park Business Manager: Katherine Sarafianos Photo Editors: Tyson Jamieson, Cassidy Viox News Editor: Rochita Ghosh Features Editor: Nikol Slatinska Editorials Editor: Ji-Ho Lee Commentary Editor:

Grace Vance In-Depths Editor: Skyler Froese A&E Editor: Elad Gov-Ari Sports Editor: Faaris Khan Staff Writers: Grace Dorsey, Ann Fitzmaurice, Alyssa Gibler , Ethan Howard, Siena Juhlin, Ji-Sung Lee, Emily Oba, Katie Whaley Artists: Dzung Nguyen, Joanna Yu, Moy Zhong Photographers: Abby Blitz, Kristine Cho, Yousuf El-Jayyousi, Éléa Gilles Videographers: Cameron Fuller, Madison Wright

A6 | editorials

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Students Speak

tyson jamieson / the rock

Rochita Ghosh

Elad Gov-Ari

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eople are too concerned with sheltering and protecting every discomfort a person experiences in their day-to-day lives. Whether that comes from a hypersensitivity to racism or avoiding controversial yet necessary topics, this problem is an ever-present part of today’s culture.

Sheltering has found its way into most aspects of entertainment. The latest and most bothersome form of sheltering, however, is trigger warnings.

A trigger warning, as the Merriam Webster dictionary defines, is “a statement cautioning content that may be disturbing or upsetting.” By usage of this definition, any topic addressed in media that may be upsetting must be prefaced by a clear, descriptive warning of what is to come. This seemingly small message can have several negative effects, from decreasing the credibility and impact of a subject, to feeding the population’s growing oversensitivity to real world problems.

The prevalence of trigger warnings has gone to such extremes that students nationwide have complained that their universities need to install trigger warnings into classes so that the material covered won’t take them by surprise. This has been met with most colleges’ refusal to adhere to such warnings.

Finally, trigger warnings are said to cater to the needs of those with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and while no scientific evidence supports such claims, the concept of sheltering these people from mere words seen in everyday life, be that on billboards, commercials or magazines, is an arduous and rather preposterous task. People living in everyday life would come across ‘triggers’ everywhere, every single day. To propose such a thing as a prefaced warning to each topic discussed is going too far.

Overall, despite seemingly insignificant in their nature, trigger warnings validate the newer generation’s oversensitivity to freeformed discussion and exploration of difficult subjects. This is not to say that racism, sexism, violence and all the other horrors of our society are not ever present and discussed.

But when it comes to smaller scale evaluation or assessment of such topics, students and adults alike should be able to bear these shaky feelings and proceed with their lives, as they experience a realm of education and thought that no other generation has.

U

tyson jamieson / the rock

ncontrollable trembling. Impending sense of fear, of doom. Heart racing, pounding in one’s throat.

These are a few of the symptoms of an anxiety or panic attack, defined by Mayo Clinic as “an intense period of fear or feeling of doom developing over a very short time frame.” Panic attacks typically happen to those with an anxiety disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and can often arise when confronted with something particularly distressing to a person, including topics like sexual assault or suicide.

While the attacks usually occur during a short time frame, they often leave the victim fatigued and fearful for days. For a person trying to recover from a traumatic event, it feels like several steps back in their recovery process. To combat trauma and promote healing came the development of trigger warnings, a statement alerting of sensitive content to consumers.

It’s not wrong, however, to say that trigger warnings allow people suffering from a traumatic event to escape their healing. A common technique for overcoming anxiety and PTSD includes exposure therapy, which is the process of gradually introducing memories, feelings and situations related to one’s trauma, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Forcing a person who has suffered sexual assault to watch a graphic representation of it on screen is not exposure therapy; instead, it’s overwhelming, and is more likely to cause a severe panic attack than a positive response in one’s recovery. Trigger warnings allow viewers to take control of their healing process and decide if they are ready to handle a given material, rather than someone else deciding for them.

These warnings are not commonplace. People justify their scarcity by saying that the ‘real world’ has no trigger warnings, that the real world is cold, cruel and unsympathetic to life troubles.

Thus, regardless of traumatic experiences, people must deal with their problems and move on, right?

Recovery isn’t that simple. It’s a long and complicated process, and there is no need to make an already difficult journey that much harder.

The real world doesn’t have to be a desolate, unforgiving place. We humans have the power to make the world a more positive and accepting place, but one person cannot undertake that change alone. Be considerate of one another, of what trauma fellow human beings have gone through, and respect their attempts to overcome it.

tyson jamieson / the rock

It’s a bit like babying someone. If people are sensitive to things, the only way to get past that is to be exposed to it.”

— Jacob Sandbothe, senior

If there’s an article about suicide or something, you’re gonna need a trigger warning for that. It’d be crappy if you didn’t.”

— Andrew Meister, senior

I think trigger warnings get a bad reputation and are misused sometimes, but I am for the concept of trigger warnings.”

— Becca Wells, senior

I just don’t see the point of them. I mean, people can tell that something is gonna be in [an article] by the title.”

— Raylen Blackston, junior tyson jamieson / the rock

Stop. Look. Listen. ! Are trigger warnings necessary?

65.5%

34.5%

Yes

No

The Rock surveyed 200 students, 10 percent of the student body. dzung nguyen

dzung nguyen

Want to be successful? Just don’t go to sleep Katie Whaley

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here is only so much usable time in a day, meaning there are only so many opportunities that a single day can offer before it comes to an end. As a result, time for completing work is short within the 24-hour span. But never fear. There’s an easy, do-it-yourself solution to finding time to fit school work, chores and extra-curricular activities into every day: don’t sleep.

Sleep wastes one-third of every day. Someone closing their eyes for eight hours and dreaming unrealistic thoughts and imagining unlikely events isn’t productive nor does it recharge energy. No one is ever satisfied or magically “not tired” because they got their full dose of sleep. If anything, sleep causes more stress on people because of how pointless it is.

It’s just useless to “hit the hay” when there’s no glorious result. No A, no trophy, no “good job” or “well done” is granted to the student who lays on a mattress for an extended period of time. It’s just an off-switch to someone who could do significantly more important things.

Imagine all the papers written,

tests studied for and assignments finished during the night. Without sleep, there’d be no more excuses about not acing a test, since there’d be more than enough time to prepare for it.

Plus, it would give more time for activities such as sports or jobs. With daily practices for student athletes, it can be hard to finish schoolwork if their bedtime is 10 p.m. sharp. But if athletes never went to bed, they

would go to practice and complete all their homework easily. People with jobs could have more time to work and finish school work. They could even add a second or third job so that they could make even more money.

Now there is a concern for tiredness, but that’s what caffeine is for.

Instead of sleeping, people should drink at least 25 cups of coffee a day. For those who don’t appreciate

the bitter taste, Monster and FiveHour Energy were made for a reason.

RBHS recently added easily accessible caffeinated drinks in the cafeteria and in vending machines, which would make this process of ingesting caffeine even easier.

Drinking doesn’t take up as much time and will improve efficiency in the classroom more than sleep will.

Caffeine will provide students with

dzung nguyen

even more energy than seven hours of shut-eye. It is caffeine, not sleeping, that will make teens more energized and ready for anything.

In fact, we should just get rid of beds altogether. They do nothing but take up space that could be used for more important things, such as bookshelves and desks. Beds, along with mattresses, futons or couches for that matter, are simply excuses to do less work. Beds create problems and distractions that high school students can’t afford to have.

It’s clear that sleep isn’t important to high school students, but it isn’t critical in the long run, either. Slumber doesn’t graduate with a high school diploma. Rest doesn’t earn college scholarships. Sweet dreams do nothing but distract students from their schooling. Without sleep, students would have better grades and higher test scores, and better prepare them for future endeavors.

This marks the end of visions of dancing sugar-plums in children’s heads. It’s time for people to do meaningful work for all 24 hours in a day. It’s time to throw that obnoxious alarm clock out the window. It’s time to put sleep to bed.

editorials | a7

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

All victims deserve equality

moy zhong

Emily Oba

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any consider the recent video of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women to be disturbing. As a presidential nominee, he should not be allowed to talk about sexual assault in such a casual and arrogant manner, nor should anybody else. Society does not take sexual assault seriously enough and needs to change its mindset on how to treat sexual assault victims.

Some people think the girls who get sexually assaulted are at fault, but that is not true. Why is it so hard to believe it’s not the girl’s fault? She is never “asking for it.” Predators force it upon the victim against her will.

Rather than being treated with care and understanding, victims are told they should have tried harder to stop the assault or that they encouraged their attacker by wearing “revealing” clothes. Last year, at Eastern High School in Lansing, Mich., a teenage boy sexually assault-

ed a 14-year old girl in a stairwell. The attacker was charged and pleaded guilty in court. But instead of the girl being treated like the victim that she was, the school suspended the teenager for 10 days for “lewd behavior” for engaging in sexual conduct “regardless of consent.”

It is also important to recognize that anyone can be a victim. While women are more commonly assaulted, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) shows that one out of 10 rape victims in the United States are male.

Sexual assault is a non-consentual activity.

In the Michigan case, the school suspending the student implied that the victim was at fault for a crime committed against her. But people who are sexually assaulted are never to blame and should be treated as victims.

People say the survivor should have worn more “appropriate” clothing, but is it a person’s fault that they appeared weak when they got robbed? Is it someone’s fault that they were shot because of the color of their skin? No, it’s not. It’s the same thing with sexual assault. No

matter what people wear or do, if they say no, it means no.

School administrators shouldn’t dictate and control what a girl is wearing, that would be taking away their freedom. Instead of trying to fix the victim, fix the attacker.

Blaming the victim perpetuates the unhealthy and damaging treatment that ails so many sexual assault survivors. Furthermore, it creates excuses for the criminals, which makes inappropriate actions seem acceptable.

Because of the psychological and physical damage rapists cause their victims, sexual assailants should suffer more serious consequences than a fine or a few years in prison.

In schools, under Title IX, which defines sexism, the school handles sexual assault cases and often lets the accused assaulter off with just a suspension and it rarely results in a prison sentence. Sexual assailants don’t deserve to be excused from their crime. They won’t learn if they are just let off with a warning. They need to face the consequences for their actions.

Rather than the school handling sexual assault cases, every instance should be left to the police because schools are not implementing the right punishments to the assaulters.

Along with schools not doing their job, society is failing victims. Victims having to relive the event by talking about the assault, but they are shamed, laughed at and humiliated by peers, teachers and sometimes even family.

Today’s culture has to enforce a harsher punishment on rapists to teach young boys and girls that it’s not okay to sexually assault someone, and that it’s a serious crime that does a lot of damage. The nation needs to stand up for rape victims and ensure that the attacker receives the right consequences for their actions.

High schools are not implementing severe enough punishments for teenage sexual assailants. Instead of high schools dealing with sexual assault cases, it should be the police.

Contact your local senator or representative and your school board to change how sexual assault cases are handled in school.

dzung nguyen

Social media squabbles require confrontation, not passiveness Ann Fitzmaurice

A

freshman college student’s Twitter went viral after she hung up her roommate’s subtweets on the dorm wall.

“Today I found all the subtweets my roommate has made about me, so I printed them out and hung them up in our dorm,” @jessyjeanie said on Twitter.

The subtweets reached an all new level of petty, with the subtweeting roommate posting things such as “two weeks down and I already hate my roommate!” and “I’m allergic to my roommate.”

After jessyjeanine’s tweet went viral, the roommates developed a rivalry and both received many criticisms online.

Social media is an outlet for people to share milestones, feelings and connect with friends. With this digital freedom, however, comes the potential for conflict.

When two friends have an argument, the internet can become the outlet for their frustrations, allowing people to confront a person without the unwanted stress that comes with a face to face confrontation.

Indirect, or passive aggressive behavior, is talking about someone on the internet while knowing full well that they’ll see the comment. It’s saying something negative about someone without saying it to their face.

Psychology Today concludes there are many differing reasons why passive aggressive behavior begins. Expressing anger is socially undesired, whereas secretly slipping in a few indirect words

on social media is much more acceptable. the conflict aside and waiting for it to For example, if someone is sad and cry- solve itself. As the saying goes, ignorance ing, another person’s first reaction may is bliss, but in this case, ignorance is shovbe to comfort and ask if they’re okay. If ing problems under a rug and hoping they a person is angry and yelling, however, a disappear. Pro tip: they won’t. Ignoring first response is usually to tell that person the elephant in the room does not keep the problem away; it’s not going to leave with to calm down in a non-sensitive manner.

Passive agressive, underhanded ways the last of your acknowledgements.

Ignoring the problem enables it to beneed to stop. On Twitter, half the tweets under the ‘subtweet’ search are more come worse.

Just as a dog doesn’t know chewing subtweets talking about people who subtweet. It’s an endless, vicious cycle. In- shoes is bad before being scolded, not directing online is a bad habit, and the confronting a bad situation is subcononly way to break it is by confronting the sciously encouraging and acknowledging conflicts in person. Whether they be with that it is okay to do so.

Also, spreading these posts around alpeers, a teacher, or someone who is trylows assumping to turn left tions. So, cononto Southampfronting these ton, you have to Our online presence can make problematic let that person or break self-esteem and reposts and getknow — then lationships with other people. ting them taken and there — that Indirecting others in times of down as soon as what they did turmoil solves nothing. possible is the was problematic only option to in your eyes in order to move forward with a clean slate. prevent negative digital footprints.

Our online presence can make or break Hand in hand with constructive criticism, confrontation builds character and self-esteem and relationships with other improves work ethic. Greg Walker of people. Indirecting others in times of turOregon State University’s department of moil solves nothing.

It creates tension among parties and speech communication said confrontation becomes positive when it comes as asser- takes steps back instead of forward. tive and collaborative. Only by listening, Passive-aggressive ways of dealing with understanding and moving forward as a troubles need to stop.

Confrontation isn’t easy, but it is necteam will confrontation achieve the established goal of whatever change is needed. essary. In the case of the quarreling roomAlong with indirectly asking someone mates, a simple conversation would have for change comes the act of just pushing kept their argument from going viral.

Joanna yu

A8 | advertisements

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

FEATURES

a closer look Teachers recall times that made them question whether or not to keep pursuing their dreams, B2

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Y ADMINISTRATIO

CE: SOCIAL SECURIT

UR MOY ZHONG / SO

e n i i d enti m r e t ty, e d f s ut e m u a r e N Cassidy Viox

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hat’s in a name?” Shakespeare’s Juliet muses.

“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

While Shakespeare may have been a master of metrical lines, it can be argued that he was completely wrong on the importance of names.

They affect people every moment of their lives; few days go by without hearing somebody’s name. Names organize society by recognizing and uniquely labeling every person’s identity.

Some people like their names; others don’t. Long, short, simple, hard to pronounce, hyphenated, common or multicultural, they all affect their owners in some way or another, whether it be good or bad.

Dr. Iman Nick, president of the American Name Society, said names and name-giving are the two most fundamental manifestations of human connection and cognition.

“Evidence of this fact can be seen in the linguistic and cognitive development of children. As soon as children begin to acquire a language, they begin to ask about for the names used to label their perceptual world,” Dr. Nick said. “From sign languages to spoken languages, the names we use to label our perceptual world form an intellectual framework to understand and communicate. The study of names can provide us with significant insights into the different ways people perceive the world.”

Those who have difficulties understanding their identities seem to reflect the importance of names most.

Freshman Samiel Clements dis- with people that don’t understand it.

“When people call me by my covered his transgender identity and spent hours coming up with a name dead name, it really, really hurts,” to suit him for the rest of his life. Clements said. “It’s like being broClements’s “dead” name, his name ken up in a way. Sometimes I even given at birth, wasn’t as gender neu- break down crying.”

Sometimes a name change is not a tral as he wanted it to be. After anapersonal choice. Senior Divya Divya lyzing his options, he chose Samiel.

“It was midnight, and I wasn’t experienced problems as she went even out to my parents or any of my through U.S. Customs and Embassy, friends yet, so choosing a name on which resulted in her legal name my own was slightly difficult,” Cle- changing from Divya Jairam in Pakiments said. “I was under the covers stan to “First name unknown” Divya with my phone and just started look- in the United States. As she applied ing up some gender neutral names. for her passport, her father just wrote Eventually I settled on Samiel. I don’t “Divya” with no last name, because know why, but Samuel just didn’t in Pakistan, policies are relaxed. It sound as pleasing to me, but Samiel didn’t matter if she had a last name as much was a peras it matfect fit.” ters in the Since The study of names can provide U.S. identifying us with significant insights into In the as transthe different ways people perfourth gender last grade, November, ceive the world they live in. everyone Clements — Dr. Iman Nick, called feels free President of the American her “first to express Name Society name unhimself to known,” welcoming people. As great as it is to receive so on school records, her family acceptance, Clements also struggles changed her name to Divya Divya. with people who refuse to acknowl- On her green card, however, they changed her name to “no name givedge his name.

“The only person that didn’t ac- en” Divya. When Divya gets older, cept my name or me being transgen- she plans on changing her legal name der is my brother,” Clements said. to Divya Divya.

“Whenever I do anything that in“He still calls me his sister and calls me by my dead name. However, he’s volves sharing my identity, it always 33 and lives far away from me, so it takes long,” Divya said. “Airports and cruises are horrible because they doesn’t impact my daily life.”

Clements’s case is a great ex- will spend half an hour just trying to ample of the importance of identity figure out my name.”

Although she finds it a hassle at and how that affects a person. Even though Clements is happy with his times, she thinks her parents picked a new name and identity, he still deals beautiful name for her and she loves

how unique her situation is.

“It displays my crazy personality, as well,” Divya said. “My name is specifically unique to me because everyone in my house has different last names. It’s a little different from the status quo.”

Even though name-giving may seem random, there is a scientific strategy to it. The study of onomastics is the history and use of proper names.

Dr. Nick said social prejudices affect the way the public perceives name-bearers, and the fault of many parents is that they try to influence their children’s success with onomastic recommended names.

“It is very difficult to predict what names will be favored 10, 20 or 30 years from now,” Dr. Nick said. “The popular media can profoundly affect the collective popularity of a personal name, making a name which was once out very much in, or the reverse. Even if it were possible to make such predictions with a high degree of accuracy, I would contend that the solution to name-based prejudice is to increase social awareness about the dangers of implicit biases.”

The importance of names and onomastics affects people for their entire lives and can have profound impacts on them, from the way they’re identified to the way other people judge them.

“The study of names can provide us with significant insights into the different ways people perceive the world they live in,” Dr. Nick said.

“The strong positive and negative associations that names carry affect the name-bearer; therefore, the name children carry can have a profound impact upon their development.”

MOY ZHONG / SOURCE: THE HUFFINGTON POST

B2 | features

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

TEACHERS DEFEAT DOUBTS Cam Fuller

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ike many educators around the country, RBHS science teacher Cathy Dweik has a lot on her mind. There are lesson plans to write and papers to grade as well as a dozen other things: evaluations, observations and class trips, to name a few. The job can be overwhelming, even when someone has been doing it for a long time.

Dweik says she still remembers how other teachers warned her that the initial year could be rough, but at the beginning, she was full of energy.

“My first year teaching was interesting because I got a lot more than I thought I would,” Dweik said. “I started out ready to go, but over time the entire job just got to me. I definitely questioned how much I wanted it for a while. “ Dweik isn’t the only teacher who has experienced this feeling. One in 10 teachers will quit the job by the end of his or her first year, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Education. Richard M. Ingersoll, a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, was a part of the study and sees this statistic as a prime example of the problems with the education system.

“What we need to realize as a nation is that these teachers don’t have enough support to make it all on their own,” Ingersoll said. “I think that we need to be helping these teachers gain a support system just as much as they gain a knowledge base for teaching so they stay teaching.”

The same study also found that teachers who have a mentor to guide them through their first year are twice as likely to turn teaching into a career. Dweik personally saw the benefits of teaching as she

had multiple supporters, both in school shoot at children walking right out of the and out, that helped her as a young teach- door.”

This time period became a trying one er. Through perseverance, Dweik saw her for McDonough, and made her reconsidteaching dream become a reality.

“For me it really took help from both er what drew her to the field in the first my friends and principal at work and place.

“I remember sitting in my car waitthen also help from my family when I got home,” Dweik said. “I really think this is ing one morning before school for kids to why it’s so important for new or young get through the security checkpoint, and teachers to get some kind of support I really thought that this was the end of system that fits them and can get them my teaching career,” McDonough said. through the rough parts of teaching pe- “It really just hit me that this may be all riod. Without one, you’re really just hurt- too much for me, and I didn’t see myself ing yourself and your chances of making continuing because I didn’t see the point.”

Similar to Dweik, McDonough used it through.” the support system It isn’t just of her peers and new teachers family to regain who doubt their I remember sitting in my car her drive to teach. jobs, however, waiting one morning before Though it worked as AP Lit and AP school waiting for kids to get out for her, she says Lang teacher through the security checkshe could see where Deborah Mcpoint, and I really thought the job becomes too Donough found that this was the end of my much for others and out while teachteaching career.” why they may quit. ing in Boston, — Deborah McDonough, “I, thankfully, Mass. During a had a good group tumultuous time English teacher of teachers around for educators around the country, McDonough not only me that really helped me to get through rethought her own job, but also the entire the whole ordeal,” McDonough said. “I really think that for teachers to really enschool system as a whole.

“I began to question what I wanted to joy their work and make it through, they do around a time when there had been have to have some kind of support system multiple school shootings in our country that helps them to find why teaching matand multiple gang shootings in our area,” ters to them because that’s exactly what it McDonough said. “It got to the point took for me to make it through.”

For junior Adam Richenberger, where there had been so much violence that the school began frisking kids and who is interested in possibly gomaking them walk through metal detec- ing into the field of education, tors before school. They weren’t even the idea of creating a group safe after they got out of school, either, of supporters seems like because there had been gangs that would a given. In the future he

would still like to see more additions made for the well-being of teachers, like specialist counselors and even mental health support groups.

“To me it seems like teaching is one of the most emotionally draining and high pressure jobs out there,” Richenberger said. “That’s why I think it’s extremely important that teachers receive as much mental support as possible. Whether that’s with some kind of counselor or whatever I really think that the school district needs to be providing teachers with mental health specialists that know what they’re doing if they want to keep teachers on the job.”

Moving forward, both the Department of Education and Ingersoll would like to see more teachers take steps similar to what Dweik and McDonough did to lower the amount of teachers leaving the profession. Ingersoll also thinks that with new technology and ways to connect, he and the department can make that happen.

“With new technologies it’s becoming easier and easier for teachers to connect with and support one another,” Ingersoll said. “There have even been e-mail chains [that] send out daily reminders of the importance of teaching. It’s advances like this that will help the education system grow and thrive.”

dzung nguyen

Prevailing in a fool’s paradise Millennial generation grapples with deluded self-image Skyler Froese

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s Generation X are latch key children, the millennials are a generation of winners — but not in the traditional sense. Prizes for attendance and participation are now commonplace, and these rewards face much criticism.

Supporters believe making every child feel like a champion builds confidence, but those in opposition think it gives students unachievable expectations and detractions from hard work.

“The ‘every child [is] a winner’ concept was perhaps created to encourage kids to believe in themselves more,” counseling psychologist and author Dr. Carl Pickhardt said. “Also, it may have been intended to reduce the possibility of any child feeling like a ‘loser,’ but it creates a high performance expectation in which doing well seems to be more important than enjoying what one is doing.”

Senior Logan Reuter felt a similar pressure to perform since third grade.

His parents created a competitive environment as he grew up playing football. Although they remained interested in his sports, Reuter began to lose the love for the game.

“Coming into high school, there was high expectations for me in football,” Reuter said. “I just didn’t love football enough to try hard and make those expectations a reality. And when I didn’t meet the expectations, I think it caused me to like it even less.”

Dr. Pickhardt acknowledges this struggle. He believes when a child is told he or she is a winner and is expected to be a winner, the stress can begin to ruin the fun of the activity. “ Te l l i n g kids that they are a champion is generally meant

to motivate a child to do well. However, the message can distort selfevaluation and create unrealistically high expectations, leading to let down when discovering that doing extremely well in one group does not mean they are going to do that well in another,” Dr. Pickhardt said. “Feeling one is not measuring up to the champion they were told they were can create a lot of performance pressure, self-disappointment and spoil the pleasure of the play.”

Reuter eventually divorced from football. While it did not hurt his relationship with his family, it altered other parts of his life — particularly how he interacted with his peers.

“It changed from always talking to my friends about football and how we were looking forward to the next game and people wishing me good luck and cheering me on, to me being the one wishing my friends good luck and cheering them on,” Reuter said.

While his parents had always been his biggest supporters, they were by no means heartbroken by their son leaving the sport.

“I think my parents did a very good job at pressuring me into trying my hardest but holding back and putting my best interests first when I told them I no longer wanted to play,” Reuter said. “I was very happy they handled it how they did, and, although they wanted me to

continue playing, they held back and let me choose what made me happy.”

Dr. Pickhardt believes parents such as the Reuters must be cognizant of their child’s feelings toward their extracurriculars.

“Seeing a child failing in a noncurricular activity, a parent might want to check out if failing was a function of lack of fit, or if failing effort reflected a loss of interest or caring,” Dr. Pickhardt said. “Then parents can encourage the young person to find another activity that feels more congenial, inviting and rewarding.”

Even though Reuter’s time in the sport ended, it impacted his life deeply to be pushed forward and supported in an sport that he felt no passion for. Off the field, a similar phenomenon stands for many children. Teachers push students forward in learning, sometimes with more confidence than is warranted. Civics teacher Kelley Wittenborn has seen this dissonance occur i n her

career. She feels truthful yet sensitive conversations are what will keep students on track.

“There is no ‘finish line’ to learning, which is why I think ... that teachers are hesitant to tell a student that they aren’t ‘good’ at math or writing,” Wittenborn said. “What they really should be clearly communicating is where a student is being successful in the skills and then highlight for that student, with specific examples, how they can still grow, change and develop.”

Wittenborn sees many students misvaluing their own scores. Rather than an overall marker of the person they are, scores are just a reflection of a single snapshot of a student. She does not believe a bad score is always bad. It could just be a reminder that progress is coming.

“I just had a conversation with a student about this yesterday who was upset that she got a low score on thesis in her essay,” Wittenborn said. “I explained to her that, yes, we are assessing you on a skill that you haven’t perfected yet — which I know to some students seems unfair — but our goal, as teachers, is to help you grow, develop and progress in learning and achievement. The scores simply provide feedback on where you are now and where you can grow and improve.”

Wittenborn also mentioned that when a

student is faced with the disappointment that they are not progressing at the level they thought they would be, it is imperative for the teacher to have a detailed conversation with the student.

“A balance of being honest about the student’s current progress,” Wittenborn said, “but also the encouragement that there are ways that they can improve and better their scores or current progress is important.”

The praise that comes with all of this is good for a child’s confidence.

But if those A’s are not all accurate representations of students’ performances, a teacher is faced with what will be sacrificed: self-image or authenticity.

“I think that, like most things in life, a good balance is necessary.

You never want to straight-up lie to a student about their current place of progress in your class,” Wittenborn said. “That doesn’t benefit anyone and especially not the student, but, at the same time, telling a kid that got a [two out of four] that his paper was bad, and he should pitch it and just do it over is extremely disheartening and damaging for a student’s progress.”

Dr. Pickhardt agrees the education system needs to focus more on the progress than on the grade. She and Wittenborn agree that scores are like trophies; they can give a lot of confidence and motivation. But these rewards can also deter children from following the path inside of them to success.

“The motivation behind giving every kid a trophy is usually to spread the recognition of everyone’s effort and individual contribution around,” Dr. Pickhardt said. “Not giving trophies encourages playing just for enjoyment’s sake.

Trophies provide extrinsic motivation. Enjoyment drives intrinsic motivation.” dzung nguyen

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

in-depths | B3

The United States of Millennials

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a o t s e m o c n o s a e s n o i t c s s As ele o r c a n e r d l i h c , t n i o p i t tipping l u n w o r i e h t e c a f a c g Ameri n i t o v e h t f o e d i s t u o s matum booths.

B4 | in-depths

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

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hildren love to dream. They believe they can be rock stars and fireman. They can be inventors or artists. They can even be president.

Senior Stephanie Zhang did not differ from any other child who wanted to grow up to be Commander and Chief of the United States.

Like her pint-sized peers, she said the Pledge and studied hard, but there was still one obstacle in her way: she was born in China.

“I was in elementary school and possibly in second or third grade. Our teacher asked us to introduce ourselves to the rest of the class and one of the requirements was what we wanted to be when we grew up. When it was my turn, I got up and told the class I wanted to be president,” Zhang said. “A friend of mine who knew I immigrated to the U.S. said out loud that me being president was impossible because I was not a natural born citizen. I think the teacher also confirmed that only natural born citizens can become president.”

Zhang’s heartbreaking reality check is the result of the Natural Born Citizen clause of the Constitution, which requires that candidates for president must be a natural born U.S. citizen. A long history of English common law and the desire to make a new, distinctly non-British country gave birth to this principle. For children like Zhang, however, this history does little to comfort or interest.

“At the fourth grade level, I think most kids are trying to understand what government is and how it relates to them.

I focus more on the responsibility and purpose of government,” Rock Bridge Elementary teacher Jamie Blackburn said. “I can’t say that I’ve ever n io t u it e Const said immigrants can’t e to th id u G ge herita e h T : be president. I think e rc

that would portray a very negative view of our coun- ers.” Thus, only those born with U.S. citizenship try. I want my students to be exposed to possibilities could be the president. Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History teacher Chris Fischer believes the rearather than restrictions.”

John Nies, a fifth grade teacher at Grant Elemen- soning behind this clause could come from the detary school agrees with Blackburn that doors need to sire to have a leader that exclusively wants to help America. be opened to young students rather than be closed.

“Usually, with respect to the legal qualifications “This executive should reflect the will and the for president, the discussion in fifth grade turns to interest of the people, this sovereign nation… this the age requirements. In any case, it is always impor- person has to be American because Americans are tant to remind students according to the rules of the unique from British,” Fischer said.

U.S. Constitution, the document can be changed,” Even with this historical rationale, Fischer still Nies said. “These rules set up for a democracy can believes that what has always been fact is falling out evolve so in case of age or naturalization, future of favor. In his AP classes he has seen his students citizens could change the requirements. It seems begin to see this requirement as antiquated. He himto me, though race and gender are not mentioned self noted that those who go through the naturalizain the qualifications— and never have been as far tion process are in some ways more qualified to repas I know— it is totally possible resent the values of America. someday we could have a legally “When you have such a elected foreign born nationals, pluralistic society, in a sociAlthough you and the group represented would ety of immigrants such as we have the same feel a cultural transition maybe have today, when you look status a s similar to African Americans for a chief executive you look a natura l born c itiwith [Barack] Obama and womfor someone that really can zen, you don’t ha en with [Hillary] Clinton.” lead the strongest country in ve the priv Even though her presidenthe free world,” Fischer said. ilege to run tial aspirations were nowhere “Does that person have to be for office .” near concrete, Zhang was still born on U.S. soil in order to S t e p h anie Zha upset that this choice was manifest those talents? I think ng, taken from her. As a child, there is some that would maybe Senior she desired the prestige and argue that’s not really necespotential to help the country that sary.” presidents had, but suddenly this was no longer an Zhang agrees that this reoption for her. quirement hinders the Democratic process. It ex“I was extremely confused as to why someone cludes roughly 20 million Americans from running had to be born in the U.S. or its territories to be eli- for presidential office, and in recent elections has gible for office.” Zhang said. “Does being born in served to cause hysteria over immigrants potentially the U.S. mean you’re more ‘American’ than those running. Beyond harming national interests, Zhang who are not? Does being an natural born citizen also knows that it hurts some of the country’s smallmean you’re more loyal to the U.S. than a natural- est patriots. ized citizen or immigrant? I’ve had questions like “If you’re an immigrant child and were naturalthese ever since then and I haven’t heard of a good ized, you kind of have, at least for me, the impresresponse yet.” sion that you’re not at the same level as natural born John Jay, an original framer of the Constitution citizens. Although you have the same status as a natcould provide Zhang’s answer. During the Consti- ural born citizen, you don’t have the privilege to run tutional Convention, Jay wrote George Washington for office,” Zhang said. “Even though I don’t want advising him to only allow natural citizens to be the to be president anymore, it’s still confusing and irpresident in order to discourage “ambitious foreign- ritating that I have an option taken away from me.”

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Skyler Froese

B6 | in-depths

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features | b7

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Pushy parents abuse authority T Rochita Ghosh

hanks to television shows such as ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ and ‘Dance Moms’, many people consider parents of child pageant contestants to be overbearing and living vicariously through their children, as reported on the BBC Network.

Although RBHS parent Christine Spurling is a pageant parent herself, she watches many of her compatriots in horror.

“I have seen girls in the pageant world attend pageant after pageant with no win. Although the girls are learning tenacity from this, I hope it is a personal decision for them to continue and not a pushy parent,” Spurling said. “I feel this could be very damaging on a girl’s self-esteem to keep going to pageants where they are never granted a title if they are only being pushed by a parent.”

Her daughter, senior Rachel Spurling, has taken part in pageants since she was 12 years old. Unlike the public perception of pageant parents, Spurling said her parents have never forced her into doing anything — in fact, she was the one who suggested competing in beauty pageants to her mother.

“My parents have always been supportive of anything that I want to do and have held a high standard for me,” Rachel Spurling said. “Growing up, I always wanted to be the best I could be because I wanted to impress my parents and live up to their expectations. My parents have never made me do anything I did not want to do

but have been incredibly supportive and 100 percent invested in everything I chose to do.”

Parents of pageant contestants are not the only overbearing guardians. This is commonly referred to as helicopter parenting, where parents hover over their children’s life experiences, often resulting in the parent forcing their children into hobbies they are not interested in.

This may also set up unrealistic standards, said Andrew Schofield, a faculty member of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University. He said these parents foster the fear of failure in their children, which can lead to dire consequences.

“Kids who are pushed often feel a lot of anxiety. They’ll sometimes feel depression or feel [not in] control so they do things that are associated with [being in control],” Schofield said. “They may engage in selfharm, injurious behavior or just risky behaviors — things they wouldn’t normally do. They’re not in an okay place emotionally, even if they’re performing accordingly to their parents’ expectations.”

Schofield said typically, children will comply with the forced activity because they trust in their parents implicitly. Eventually, the child will grow into an adult and leave the household and the force behind, but Schofield said the lack of control can follow the person into their future romantic relationships.

“This is why we see continuity across generations in abuse and other

sorts of maltreatment,” Schofield said. “When kids move away from their parents, you’d think the abuse would stop, but it doesn’t because the parent taught them that this is what they should expect from the people they love. So we seek out new relationships and we play it out again.”

Schofield acknowledges that parents using their authority to force their child into a certain activity usually does result in excellency, but he believes the side effects are not worth the success. He suggests “nurturing the child into excellency,” but

Students Speak

Christine Spurling says sometimes the only option is to nag the child into doing a given activity, if carried out correctly.

“I see ‘nagging’ as something different. I see this as encouraging your child to get something done that is in their interest. Maybe the child doesn’t realize the importance of deadlines and needs constant reminding in order to get something done,” Christine Spurling said. “Some kids need nagging and [others] do not. I’m sure all mothers look forward to the day when their children will be organized and self-motivated, and they

Strict vs. lenient parenting: Which do you prefer?

I feel like sometimes I do stuff that I wouldn’t want to get away with but [my mom] wouldn’t be hard on me. She’d be nice, and sometimes I wish I’d get that push.”

— Olivia Zacharias, junior

It’s hard to go out and do things because I don’t have control over my schedule. [My mom] helps me stay on top of things, though, and when things go wrong, she can intervene.

Sometimes I feel like I could handle things on my own.”

— Hannah Potter, senior cassidy viox / the rock

Cassidy viox / the rock

Achievers feel like frauds Nikol Slatinska

J

unior Sonya Hu is an enigma.

She takes almost all AP classes, has scored a 35 on the ACT, is co-captain of the debate team and almost always places at tournaments.

Not to mention, she maintains her level of academic brilliance all while balancing a job, an internship and being a supportive friend to those who know her. When her peers bring up these achievements, however, she always brushes them off apprehensively.

“I haven’t had any outstanding accomplishments. If I had to choose something, I would probably say something that has to do with debate,” Hu said. “I have a decent record. Still, I wouldn’t categorize any of my accomplishments as great.”

Hu’s inability to truly acknowledge her intellectual opulence is a defining characteristic of Impostor Syndrome. Dr. Valerie Young, author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and

How to Thrive in Spite of It, says millions of people experience the phenomenon.

“People who feel like impostors have a difficult time internalizing their accomplishments even though there is evidence of accomplishments and abilities — good grades, praise from teachers, awards, getting accepted into a college or honors courses or anything else related to knowledge or abilities,” Dr. Young said. “Instead, they attribute accomplishments to things like luck, timing, personality, like, ‘Everyone raved about my painting just because they like me,’ connections, like ‘My parents went to that college,’ or ‘They’re friends with the coach,’ or other creative excuses.”

She explained people with Impostor Syndrome worry that others will find out that they are not as capable as everyone thinks they are. Hu’s opinions of herself certainly don’t line up with the opinions of those who know her, like junior Dalton Nunamaker.

He has known Hu for four years and shares the same AP U.S. History, debate and AP Language and Composition classes with her.

“In terms of academics, she is incredible,” Nunamaker said. “She’s definitely the hardest working and ... the smartest person I’ve ever gotten to work with.”

Nunamaker admires Hu’s work ethic and precision. But every time he tries to make her aware of that, she completely rejects his flattery.

Although she feels appreciative when receiving compliments, she also feels uncomfortable and that such comments are inaccurate.

“All [of my] so-called accomplishments have been relatively mundane and don’t demonstrate a superior intellect,” Hu said. “I do think that people perceive me as being smarter than I actually am. I am not an intelligent person who pretends not to be but instead just an average person who has the title of ‘intelligent’ impressed upon them.”

While such behaviors may seem odd, they are not uncommon, especially among women. Dr. Young said men, particularly those who are first generation college students or professionals, can and do also feel like impostors.

KRISTINE CHO / THE ROCK

Women, however, are more likely to develop Impostor Syndrome for multiple reasons. The main explanation is that women are more inclined to blame themselves for failures and mistakes than men are.

“As a ‘genderalization,’ males are more likely to think the reason they failed a test is because the teacher didn’t give them enough time to study or the test was unfair,” Dr. Young said. “This is a problem because if someone admits they didn’t study hard enough, then the solution next time is to study harder; however, if you think the reason you failed is that you just can’t do math or aren’t as talented as other people — what’s the solution?”

Dr. Young mentioned that women are more likely to take criticism personally; so if a manager says, “That report was inadequate,” they hear, “I’m inadequate.”

Hu almost always seems to express feelings of inadequacy when receiving praise, and Nunamaker has taken notice.

“She assures me that she’s not as accomplished as she clearly is,” Nunamaker said. “From what I’ve read about [Impostor Syndrome], she definitely has it. I believe the way she can succeed at such a high level in everything she does and not accept any praise or congratulations for it is telling.”

Although Impostor Syndrome negatively impacts those who have it and is an indicator of low self-esteem, Dr. Young says it’s not a serious mental health issue.

“People who don’t feel like impostors are no more capable, competent or talented than people who do,” Dr. Young said. “The only difference between them and us is they think different thoughts — that’s it. That’s really good news because we can learn to think like non-impostors.”

MOY ZHONG

won’t need to nag.”

As a parent himself, Schofield agrees, stating that children do not have the same experiences and have not made the same mistakes as he did in past years, and thus are not aware of potential consequences from a given action. He said that the troubles come when the parent never consults alternate paths.

“It’s tempting to want to cut off the conversation when their child wants to do something different or doesn’t see eye to eye with us,” Schofield said. “We say, ‘No, you’re going to do it this way because I’m the parent and I said so.’ Sometimes we do have to draw that line as parents, but parents who push are falling back to that default way too often, making the appeal to authority way too often.”

Christine Spurling takes care to avoid toeing the line between being a naggy parent and an authoritarian one, as she is familiar with the effects of overbearing parents.

“I have always been quite aware of pushy or naggy parents and made a conscientious effort not to be that way,” Christine Spurling said. “I think a parent should be supportive, but I don’t believe in pushing or nagging kids to do something that they don’t want to do. ”

Ann fitzmaurice

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The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

SPORTS

State swim meet

Battling injuries

Swim team hopes to succeed at state, C2

Soccer team perseveres despite injuries, C4

yousuf el-jayyousi / the rock

Better Together: College freshman Faramola Shonekan, high school senior Ojurere Shonekan and high school sophomore Mojuba Shonekan squat in their starting postions on the track. The Shonekan siblings, all passionate track runners, motivate and encourage each other to perform at high levels in their respective events.

Following in their footsteps

Shonekans leave legacy in RBHS athletics

Ji-Ho Lee

A

s the banners hanging on the walls of the main gym may indicate, RBHS has experienced great athletic success during its illustrious 43-year existence. But as seniors graduate, coaches of different sports must turn to younger athletes in order to maintain the high level of performance. During the past five years, and perhaps for three more, one family of Bruins has passed the baton, both literally and figuratively, for RBHS. The Shonekan family, featuring college freshman Faramola, high school senior Ojurere and high school sophomore Mojuba, have displayed their talent on the track for RBHS. While they each specialize in different events, the three siblings have created a bond both on and off the track, sparked by competition and support during the past several years.

Faramola, the oldest sister and an 800 meter specialist, boasts a personal record of 2:18.50 in her primary event. She believes the coaches at RBHS and her siblings are the primary reason for her family’s success in the lore of RBHS track. Also a former sprinter for three different RBHS relay events, Faramola hopes that her impressive career as a Bruin athlete inspires her younger siblings, hopefully in the same way they have inspired her.

“I think them seeing me run varsity my freshman year and go to state every single year has influenced them greatly, because it has made them motivated to work hard in practice so that they could have the same experiences that I had all four years in high school,” Faramola Shonekan, who runs for the University of Missouri—Columbia, said. “Every race that I ran or competed in, I raced with that mindset

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that I was setting an example for them and also wanting to make them proud.”

Ojurere, the second oldest out of the siblings, won the state championship in the long jump last year with a jump of 18’9.28”. As a centerpiece of RBHS’s 4x200 and 4x400 relay events, she credits her siblings for their support and during races as a source of motivation.

“My brother and my sister have definitely made an impact on my athletic career at RBHS,” Ojurere Shonekan said. “They push me to be better, and I really have loved having them around. I always want to make them proud. If I’m competing and I hear either one of them cheering for me, their voices will cut through the crowd better than anyone else’s.”

W h i l e Ojurere often follows her sister’s footsteps on the track, she triumphed over her this year on the field.

Both Shonekan sisters were featured on the homecoming court in their respective senior years, but Ojurere left with the crown.

Soccer crushes Hickman in first district game

“I thought it was cool that we both got on the court,” Faramola Shonekan said. “When I found out that she won, I was only slightly bitter but got over it pretty quickly. I was mostly really proud of her, and I like to think that she’s my protégé so it’s thanks to me that she won.

Plus, a win for a Shonekan is a win for us all, so I’m just really proud and really excited for her.”

While Faramola and Ojurere have shined as RBHS student-athletes, Mojuba, also an 800 meter sprinter and the youngest of the three, explained that growing up with his sisters in the spotlight was at times disheartening but mostly a source of pride.

“I’ve felt overshadowed by both of my sisters prior to high school.

Reading about them in the newspaper made me feel as if I was left out, but at the same time I was proud of them,” Mojuba Shonekan said.

“At the end of the day, I try and worry about my personal performances and not primarily them.

But I’m always proud of them no matter what.”

Nevertheless, Mojuba finds motivation in his siblings, although this inspiration is proMadison Wright

Tennis clinches third consecutive state title

vided in a slightly different manner.

“The fact that my sisters both ran at RBHS before me definitely has an impact on me.

They set the bar high on the track, and I hope to succeed just as well as they did,” Mojuba Shonekan said. “Both of [my sisters] ran at the state meet their freshman year, so the fact that I didn’t was kind of disappointing from my perspective. [My sisters and I] are all very competitive when it comes to track. In practice, we’re all about our business — [there’s] not much messing around.”

Mojuba still hopes to one-up and live up to the legacy his sisters set for him as he continues his career as a Bruin athlete.

“I want a shot of getting the 800 [meter] school record,” Mojuba Shonekan said. “I also hope to continue running in college like Faramola. Ojurere was a state champion [in high school] . . . so that’s something that must be cool to accomplish. All of this is easier said than done though, so I’m going to have to put the work in first.”

Among the three of them, the Shonekans have already established an impact on the RBHS athletic department, both in the record books and on the highest levels of Missouri’s high school competitions.

With one final track season remaining for Ojurere and a bright future for Mojuba, the two remaining RBHS athletes hope to build on their family’s impact during the rest of their tenure as Bruins.

“I believe we have made a pretty nice legacy at RBHS,” Ojurere Shonekan said. “There have been some pretty epic sibling duos who’ve come through and made the program an awesome one, and I hope that we as a trio leave RBHS a little different than we found it.”

Football ends regular season with Francis Howell loss

c2 | sports

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Bruins direct sights at state title Skyler Froese

I

n the past two years, Bruin swimmers have been unstoppable. RBHS won all three of the past state swimming championships, male and female. Throughout this time, multiple former Bruins have gone on to compete in Division 1 swimming programs, and one swimmer, junior Dane Florea, even qualified for the 2016 Olympic trials.

On Nov. 4-5, RBHS swimmers will attempt to add to this impressive resumé at the 2016 MSHSAA boys’ swimming and diving championship in the St. Peters RecPlex of St. Peters, Mo. “The team looks remarkably good as we head into the final stages of the season. The team is faster in every single event and has more total qualifiers than it has ever had,” head coach Zach Mertens said. “We have even taken down a record set last year [Dane Florea, 200IM] in the state finals.”

Despite the team’s speed, swimmers such as Florea also see a troubling loss of depth in the program. Two key members of last year’s team graduated, causing major change on the squad.

“I think that if we compare our times to last year and the year before that, we are much better,” Florea said. “But I don’t think we have the depth that we used to, so compared to other teams, we are not quite as good as we were in past years.”

Mertens also acknowledges the hit to the team graduation brought.

“The team did lose two members of its swimming state team last year from graduation,” Mertens said. “Our underclassmen have had tremendous success in filling the holes left behind, especially on relays.”

While the team has been forced to adjust to the losses of key seniors, a wealth of talent remains. RBHS’s breaststroke group has remained impressive as senior Caleb Rhodenbaugh and junior Zach Lorson, ranked third and fourth in the state in the 100-yard breaststroke, respectively, headline the event.

The breaststroke, however, is not the only event where the team has had success. Out of 11 possible events, RBHS boasts two swimmers who are ranked in the top 16 in the state in eight of the events.

“Usually all relays place in the top eight, which is just what we want so we can secure a

camille mcmanus / the rock

Dive in: Swimmers representing RBHS dive into the waters at the COMO Invitational Oct. 8. Behind head coach Zach Mertens, the Bruins will be competing in the state meet Nov. 5 with the goal of bringing home a title for the second straight year. most virtually the same number of points, faces spot for finals,” Lorson said.

While the Bruins have enjoyed a recent his- an entirely different state meet,” Mertens said. tory of success, they will still face stiff compe- “This year, the team will face two teams on the tition at the state meet. Based in Kansas City, one event RBHS is not entered in: Diving.”

There are no divers Mo., Rockhurst for the Bruins this seaHigh School has son, which disallows historically been the Bruins to score one of RBHS’s bigThe team looks remarkably points for an entire gest foes in several good as we head into the final event. RBHS’ competisports, including stages of the season. We’ve tors, meanwhile, could swimming and diveven taken down a record set earn points towards the ing. Cape Central last year in the state finals.” team’s total. The bulk High School in — Zach Mertens, head coach of point earning has Cape Girardeau, been left to the Bruins’ Mo., also boasts a group of talented freshmen state qualifiers who upperclassmen. All but two of the state chamwill seek to challenge the Bruins’ attempts at a pionship qualifiers are either juniors or seniors.

The Bruins have an edge on their competition second straight state championship.

“RBHS, although they are set to score al- as they have filled two individual events with

Behind the knees is hard because you can’t really see anything. The shape is weird and I usually cut myself a lot there.”

— Jack Allen, senior

The calf behind my knees is an awkward angle.

I’m not the best shaver, so I’m trying to be careful. It just throws a wrench in the whole process.”

— Liam Stanley, junior

Swimmers Speak Where is the hardest place for you to shave? abby blitz / the rock

the maximum of five swimmers.

“Upperclassmen contribute to the majority of the points, but the underclassman could still add some points to the overall total,” Lorson said.

In spite of any doubt, the team has managed to show a relatively impressive record this season. The Bruins have placed in the top five of every invitational meet throughout the state they have competed in this season and have more state qualifying times than any other school in Missouri. This sets up the team for success in 2016 and continues the Bruins’ swimming legacy into the future.

“The boys have made fantastic progress in creating a well-rounded team,” Mertens said.

“Almost every swimmer has multiple events they can swim well in and is looking to round out their abilities even further as time passes.”

abby blitz / the rock

I guess the hardest part of my body to shave is my back because it’s difficult to reach.”

—Connor Jokerst, sophomore

abby blitz / the rock

Cross country aims for perfection Bruins hope to succeed deep in postseason Faaris Khan

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fter losing in the state tournament last year — the boys finished fourth, and the girls finished 14th, respectively — the cross country team is seeking another run at the state title this season.

The boys were able to clinch the No. 1 spot in all but two of their meets in the regular season. Most notably, the Bruins triumphed against the top team in the state, Rockhurst, in the Kearney Invitational on Oct. 8.

RBHS was able to put up a total team score of 31, edging out Rockhurst’s 37.

“I’ve been pleased with how our season has gone so far,” head coach Neal Blackburn said. “We’ve been able to train at a high level consistently without too many interruptions or speed bumps along the way.”

Senior Sam Baumer agrees with Blackburn, saying he believes one of the reasons for the boys’ success is the connection they formed over the regular season.

“I think our guys have really bonded and formed some awe-

some chemistry which is what it takes to compete as a team when you are trying to be state champions,” Baumer said. “We took a little while to get our packing running down this year which is critical to get the lowest score.”

The girls also had a fairly respectable year, managing to place second in a majority of their meets. Such success would

carry onto the district competition for both teams. The boys scored a total of 21, while the girls secured a score of 79.

With these numbers, both teams clinched the district championships on Oct. 22.

“We have all had great performances at different times throughout the season, so it was really cool to see what we can do

Maddie Phillips / the rock

Blast off: Bruin runners begin their race at a meet earlier in the season. After both RBHS teams won the district meet Oct. 22, the Bruins are now aiming to attain a victory in the upcoming sectional meet on Oct. 29.

together as a team,” senior Rebecca Rubinstein said. “Going into districts we were nervous and thought we could make top four, but having won five district championships in a row, our goal was to continue that.”

After their triumphs in the district tournament, RBHS is now setting its sights on the upcoming sectional tournament Saturday. The boys’ and girls’ teams will face high-ranking state adversaries, including Saint Louis University High (SLUH) and Nerinx Hall. With this in mind, Blackburn still has high hopes.

“My hope is that our boys can continue to run well, capture a sectional title and learn all we can in the hopes of returning to the state championships with a certain goal in mind,” Blackburn said. “I would like to see our girls secure a top three spot while competing for a sectional title and solidify a spot in the state championships. The boys have most recently defeated the No. 1 ranked team, Rockhurst, yet we are somehow still playing the role of underdog. We will try to come in under the radar these final two weeks.”

Faaris Khan

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

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The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Locked and loaded: Senior Sean Koetting sprints away from a Hickman player, preparing to clear the ball. The Bruins defeated the Kewpies 2-0. On Monday, RBHS defeated Hickman once more, 2-1, in a thrilling double-overtime match to advance to the district championship.

yousuf el-jayyousi / the rock

Soccer injuries fail to make negative impact

Team keeps high spirits in order to push for a successful season Ji-Ho Lee

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njuries in sports are an occupational hazard. They demand more of athletes who are uninjured and handicap team strategy. Even small, common injuries can be detrimental. The boys soccer team experienced injury-related adversities firsthand this year.

The squad ended up losing several players to injuries including senior defensive backs Sean Koetting and Cole Abram, as well as senior midfielder Carson Raetz. While other athletes were injured, the three seniors were the most damaging to the team’s roster.

“I was just kind of shocked because I haven’t actually been hurt seriously before and whenever I have been hurt, I am able to just kind of play through it,” Koetting, who tore the meniscus in his right knee, said. “I had to be a really vocal leader from the sideline for the first time and I couldn’t really do anything but stay positive to help the team and try to keep everyone’s spirits high.”

Although Koetting couldn’t help his team on the field, the Bruins entered the district tourna-

ment as the second seed. After defeating Hick- rest of the season.”

Abram, who strained two of the three hamman 2-1 in thrilling fashion on Monday, Oct. 25, the Bruins faced Smith-Cotton in the cham- string muscles in his left leg earlier in the seapionship game Wednesday. The results of the son, was primarily concerned with the timing of the injury. game were not known at press time.

“I was pretty disappointed because an injury Although the Bruins were successful in overcoming adversities, head coach Scott Wit- before postseason is definitely not what any tenborn explained that injuries to soccer play- athlete wants,” Abram said.

For the Bruins ers, regardless of the and for Koetting, level of competition, however, an unforare quite commonplace.

It was a scary moment be“Each year, most tunately timed incause I thought I was done for jury cost the senior a soccer programs have the rest of the season.” chance at playing in to deal with a large — Carson Raetz, senior the district tournanumber of injuries,” ment.

Wittenborn said. “PlayThree days before the first game of the disers compete hard and games can get extremely trict tournament, Koetting chipped and dislophysical with very little padding.”

While Koetting suffered an injury to his cated his elbow.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” Koetting knee, Raetz ended up wounding his left ankle.

Like Koetting, his injury kept him off the field said. “But I know the team will be successful without me.” for several weeks.

While the injuries to the trio of seniors was a “I had a second degree sprain to two ligaments in my ankle,” Raetz said. “It was a scary detriment for the team, the silver lining was obmoment because I thought I was done for the vious for senior team captain Drew Stanowski.

“[The injuries] taught us to deal with adversity,” Stanowski said. “We knew that we needed other people to step up and fill [the injured players’] spots. I thought that we did that very well throughout the year which has made us a deeper team. We had all sorts of players adapt to new positions to benefit the team.”

Wittenborn said the new players who filled in for injured starters pushed the Bruins to win nine of their last 10 games, including two match ups against nationally-ranked teams. The team, however, seemed to be recovering at the right time.

“While it hurts to have lost [players] to various injuries throughout the season, we had a pretty good idea that we would get most of them back for our postseason run. We have been fortunate to have good players step up and give us quality minutes throughout,” Wittenborn said. “This process of overcoming injuries has really helped our team come together and has added to our depth as a team. We have guys who now have gotten good minutes playing and have built confidence being a contributing part of our team’s success.”

The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

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The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

Love, Unconditional

Trip overseas inspires life changes

Read on to learn about how experiences influence students’ lives

Chase Ford, senior “[During my] first semester [of] sophomore year, I became more Libertarian and then Democrat. There was not a real defining point — I just began to educate myself more on issues and became open minded on social issues.”

Cassi Viox

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nwanted American school buses travel through Central America, ending up in Guatemalan cities. The Guatemalans paint and transform them into public transportation, which they call “chicken buses.”

Imagine the bus that you ride every day to school. Now add 20 years to its age with little refurbishment. That’s a chicken bus. The uncomfortable bus seats accompanied by the lack of maintenance on Guatemalan roads make stomachs queasy and give throbbing headaches.

I hadn’t been to Guatemala since my family adopted my sister in 2006. My dad and I journeyed down to Central America for a mission trip this summer with a small group from my church, and, for the first time since I was little, I experienced all that Guatemala had to offer. The vibrant sunrises that peaked over the rural volcanoes provided an amazing sense of raw beauty, but I was more drawn to the unceasing love and generosity of the Guatemalans I met. They devote their lives to helping each other and were quick to serve my needs, even though I was there to serve theirs. They selflessly pampered me in everything they did and welcomed me as if I were a part of their own family.

The people hugged me and allowed me to play with their children, even though for many, I was the first American they’d ever seen. Throughout my time there, I met people of all ages with different stories, such as a young girl who quit school because of severe bullying. There was another woman who was several months pregnant. She lived in poverty because the father of the child had left her. Hearing of their experiences softened my heart, and I treasure every relationship I created with my new Guatemalan friends, but rekindling my relationship with my sister’s foster parents was specifically rewarding because of the special bond between us.

I spent the first and last nights of my trip with the generous foster parents who took care of my sister for six months until my parents adopted her. I had met them when I was six, but they were nothing more than a distant memory. After not seeing the family for more than 10 years — which included the foster parents and their two sons — they greeted me as if it had only been a few weeks since the last time I saw them.

The first night, we sat for coffee in the hotel lobby, and they asked me questions about my sister and I. I felt a bond with the foster mom, who was fascinated with what I had to say and desired to learn more about my life.

There was, of course, the communication barrier — my three years of basic Spanish didn’t prepare me to provide details of all 16 years of my life; however, the lack of communication wasn’t a problem.

Sarah Merrifield, senior Deep conversations and miniscule details weren’t necessary to love each other and connect in a way that felt like real family.

“I [want to be a music educator.] I had so More than anybody else, I bonded many people in my life that have taught with the foster mom as if I were her me in music, and that’s why I love it so own daughter. She braided and untangled my hair; she held much today. I’d love to do that for somemy hand when we went body else.” on walks and teared up when she dropped me off at the airport.

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Life afterward

t’s been three months since I returned from Guatemala and through the windwhirl of r my crazy life, it’d be easy to push my exhe t / periences there to the back of my mind, but I can’t. In n o ies fact, I think about Guatemala constantly. m ja Looking at the photos and memories of that country, I can’t on s ty find a better way to describe the people there than family.

Although family is typically those who are related by blood or by legal definition, it’s so much more than that.

My sister’s foster mom treated me like family because of the immense love between us. Ten years ago, she and her family opened their homes up to my newborn sister. Ten years later she kept her heart open to me and initiated the hospitality we had.

The relationships we foster are more important to who we are than who we descend from.

Love is unconditional and there are no restrictions on how many people I can love. Family is family, even if it’s not blood. k oc

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Caroline Critchfield, senior “Kanakuk gives me the tools I need to live out and share my faith back home.

It has taught me how to live my life to be more like Christ and seek Him in my everyday life.”

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The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016

arts & entertainment | C7

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joy park / Source: https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/film/8.html

Citizen Jane film festival returns

Movies encourage equal opportunities for women Emily Oba

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according to the National Women’s History Museum, women still don’t have the same representation in many facets of life.

This is especially apparent in the film industry, where the number of women directors is astonishingly small: one woman for every 15.24 male film directors.

The Citizen Jane Film Festival, however, is trying to rectify that inequality.

The festival runs Nov. 3-6 at Stephens College. People can expect screenings of narrative, documentary and short films made by women as well as a lecture series, a filmmaking camp for girls and panel discussions with filmmakers.

Citizen Jane is focused on providing a platform for films directed by women. The festival is a place of encouragement for female filmmakers to show that their art and craft is important and holds a place. There is also an afternoon discussion called the Citizen Jane Summit, where movie industry experts and a public audience discuss and brainstorm ways to help female filmmakers through funding, mentoring and activism.

Tickets are $10 for the general public and $8 for students and senior citizens. They are purchasable online or at the box office.

Event Manager, Sarah Haas, gives more insight on what is to come from the festival and says it will be more than just “women’s issues” topics.

“A person can expect to see a range of genres of film. There may be drama, action, fantasy, thriller or romance in any number of styles and settings,” Haas said. “He or she can also expect to see art installations, to interact in Q&A sessions with filmmakers and to go to parties.”

Keri Yost and Polina Malikin co-founded the festival in 2008, with the shared intention of en-

couraging and increasing female film directors in the industry.

“It’s significant to celebrate female directors because women have been pushed to the outskirts in a male-dominated field,” Haas said.

The film’s quest is not in vain for Martha Lauzen, an executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. Lauzen discovered that women only made up 19 percent of directors, writers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers in the top 250 domestic grossing films this year. An even smaller number is that only three percent of cinematographers are women for the top 100 films, and 10 percent are women in the top 500.

“We help films on their way to securing further distribution and exhibition, and most importantly having an audience. Films are made to be seen,” Outreach Coordinator Ouma Amadou said. “Citizen Jane is focused on providing a platform for films directed by women. Our festival is a place of encouragement for women filmmakers to show that their art and craft is important and holds a

place.”

The annual Celluloid Ceiling Study in 2015 showed that just nine percent of directors are women, and according to “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World Study,” in 2014, the amount of female protagonists in the top 100 domestic grossing films was 12 percent. Despite these harrowing numbers, Haas feels the statistics of women in the film industry can change.

“Women are underrepresented in a majority of the creative decision-making positions. Similar to other industries that are historically male-dominated, it’s a slow change to develop equality in the workplace,” Haas said. “I think one way the general public can begin to create a change is to buy tickets to films directed by women. It takes intentionality, but creates waves and soon enough names like Ava DuVernay or Kathryn Bigelow will be as familiar as George Lucas or Steven Spielberg.”

Social Media Coordinator for the festival, LeAnne Lowry, said the lack of women directors in film is due to the fact that they are discriminated againsts on the basis of sex and this can be changed

Yousuf El-Jayyousi / Source: http://citizenjanefilmfestival.org

by viewing more female directed films.

“I believe it mostly comes down to male producers who don’t trust female directors and thus don’t hire them,” Lowry said. “As an audience, we can help reverse this by seeing female directed movies in the theater to drive up box office numbers and prove that hiring women is worthwhile financially for studios.”

The shortage of female directors being hired bothers sophomore Anel Castro, and she believes something must be done about it , because women deserve as much opportunity as men have.

“There needs to be a change on this, there should be equal opportunity for [both] females and males,” Castro said.

Lowry believes that the Citizen Jane Film Festival is helping women show that they are equal to men and provides a safe place to get their films seen.

“Citizen Jane is a space for female directors to screen their films without being in competition with one another,” Lowry said. “Women are conditioned to compete with each other rather than build one another up, and Citizen Jane actively combats that.”

Lowry feels that the festival is unique in that there is very little need or desire to for the directors to be in competition with one another.

Haas encourages people to come to the festival to raise awareness and help women get into the film industry.

She says we have to celebrate women in film because they have been pushed to the outskirts in a male-dominated field.

“A festival like Citizen Jane is a chance to raise the profile of a woman who wants to continue to direct films,” Haas said. “Even more, perhaps a studio will finance her next film in order to reach an even wider audience. It’s one way to create a stepping stone for directors.”

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The Rock | www.bearingnews.org | october 27, 2016